I was reading the latest post by 
This brought up some valid points about where the NFT world stands in terms of the regulators. He cited some things said by Hester Pierce of the SEC. "CryptoMom" is all for the industry but she is a regulator and expects compliance. According to the post, they are going to be watching how NFTs are used to skirt the securities laws.
What is interesting is this all falls into what I have been calling the "Great Race". This is the battle between technology creators/innovators and the establishment. It could be said the government is one the establishment side but we might be seeing some end up embracing crypto like the State of Wyoming.
Certainly, we are seeing some strange bedfellows.
Nevertheless, an important point in all of this is the fact that while there are discussions and comments about NFTs, what is a regulatory body like the SEC doing? Presently they are still going after people for things they did during the ICO craze.
That was in 2017.
This is how far behind they are.
Obviously, someone like Pierce, who was paying attention all along, is aware of what is taking place. That, however, does not overcome the fact that government moves very slow. For those who are fans of decentralization and freedom, this is a welcomed benefit. Their inefficiency works against them.
Of course, once they decide where the line is and how to apply the laws they have, then it is gloves off time. They go after any these feel they can take down.
In the past few years, we saw the rise of two different facets to this industry. We saw the evolution of DeFi into what it is today and the introductions of NFTs. So, while the SEC was sifting through their case load of illegal ICOs, the industry developed a couple new areas for the regulator to focus upon.
As we can see, they are falling a bit behind.
That does not mean that everyone has a license to steal. As we know, they will eventually get to these areas and then they start passing out subpeonas. Being on the receiving end is not likely to be very fun (nor cheap).
We have to keep in mind that DeFi was the big hit of 2020 with NFTs grabbing that role in 2021. The question is what will arise in the next couple years that will capture the imagination of the innovators? In other words, what will we be dealing with that people like Pierce will be commenting on?
The continual cat and mouse game is getting very fascinating. Personally, I have a tough time thinking the regulators can keep up with the developers. This is a global situation with contributors coming from all parts of the world. When you have a movement like that, it is hard to isolate and pin people down.
At the same time, things are only growing. As more developers show up, the pace quickens. The fast amount of projects being created is overwhelming to those of us who follow this on a regular basis. Imagine how it all much look to someone who is looking at things from a regulatory standpoint.
Of late, the digital asset concept is really intriguing me. How are regulators and lawmakers going to handle this? If a digital asset is generated via code in a smart contract, yet that is only subject to the imagination of the developer creating the contract, how can that be legislated? In my view, it gets too varied.
Laws are specific in their language. This makes it very difficult to write something all encompassing. As we know, change one thing and the law is not applicable.
Governments, even though it is hard to see, only have a finite number of resources. They are dealing with a certain number of personnel. People have to operate within budgets that are set. Accounting for their time is vital.
We are dealing in the digital world. This is near infinite. Thus, we see how one side is not bound by the same constraints. People all over the world are coding things, resulting in more projects. This is compounded by the fact there is a lot of open source software showing up. Here we see things accelerating since innovators effectively have shortcuts.
The question is at what point does the system simply get overwhelmed?
That will end up feeding into who wins this cat and mouse game.
If you found this article informative, please give an upvote and rehive.
